


Out of Narnia

by athousandwinds



Category: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: Gen, Yuletide 2007
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-21
Updated: 2011-01-21
Packaged: 2017-10-14 22:53:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/154346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/athousandwinds/pseuds/athousandwinds
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lucy, not feeling very valiant at all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Out of Narnia

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mirkat (fire_and_a_rose)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fire_and_a_rose/gifts).



This is what England means to Lucy:

"Lucy, do this! Lucy, do that! Lucy, _don't_ do that; don't run, don't jump, for heaven's sake don't yell." She feels like Gulliver in Lilliput; so many small and petty people tying down a Colossus.

The air in England is so foul she wants to choke on it, so different to the sweet smell and taste of Narnia. In Narnia, even the blood of a dead man was beautiful, blossoming from his throat like a flower. Battles were horrid, it was true, and the first time Lucy had truly felt grown-up was when she reached down to close that man's eyes. She had been fourteen and Peter had struck a new medal in honour of her courage that day.

Being fourteen in England is infinitely harder. In winter Lucy shivers in a cold, damp classroom; in summer the dried sweat makes her blouse stick to her back and the heat makes her want to squirm. In Narnia there was a fire in every grate; water in every pantry. In England she feels so much more foolish, too: in England there is no one who will tell her the things she must know and not know at the same time, like why the kitchen maid left in such a hurry and the new gardener only got his wages cut; like why Mother will let Su get a taxi with Roy Christie and not Martin Lewis when Martin Lewis is so nice and people whisper about Roy Christie behind his back.

Most of all, time crawls in England. Lucy's shoulders are bowed with the unseen heaviness of years and she has such a long time to go before she can be the Lucy she was in Narnia.


End file.
